If I can ever get him to deliver a concise, coherent version of this theory, I'll post it on a Booze ping...
Not to mention that it allowed ugly women to reproduce. We frequently see the results today.
Your friend's not the first:
Beer Brewing Paralleled the Rise of Civilization
Kurt Stoppkotte
for National Geographic News
April 24, 2001
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/04/0424_kurtbeer.html
and for health nuts:
"Antibiotic" Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz
John Roach
for National Geographic News
May 16, 2005
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0516_050516_ancientbeer.html
It is a skill that has been discovered and "forgotten" a number of times in the history of man.
Have to wonder how many times it was "forgotten" because of forced prohibition.
Is that why Muslims are so p!$$3d off all the time? Because they can't crack open some cold ones.
Beer was the foundation of civilization.
Man was a hunter of meat and gatherer of seeds.
One day he ate some seed that had gotten wet and had fermented.
He caught a BUZZzzz and liked the way it felt.
It took awhile for him to connect the dots in the wet grain/fermentation process to the buzzz... but he did.
He said to himself, hummm, instead of chasing the crops, if I stay in ONE PLACE and plant this stuff I can have all the wet grain I need to get buzzzed on???
Simple... instant farmer / civilization.